The first step in building your platform is to decide what your want your platform to say about who you are and what you have to offer.

Are you and author?

Do you have a product?

Are you a web designer?

Are you a copywriter?

Are you a publicist?

Are you a freelance writer?

Are you a marketer?

This is by no means a complete list of possibilities for platforms that showcase what you have to offer people who visit your online platform.

Consider how you will tell your story online. Is a website with a blog, a solo blog, and then what about social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and others best for getting your story online and in front of people to start creating relationships.

It’s hard to sell to people without them trusting you. You build trust through relationships and engagement with visitors to your platform.

Just like in life, it takes time to build relationships and trust. It takes patience and perseverance to make it online the right way. There are no shortcuts to building trust, you must prove your trust worthiness.

If you’re like me, long on ideas but short on cash, not wanting to go into debt to create your plat form, there are ways to create your platform using free sites.

You will have to choose which free platform resource(s) is right for you. Yes there is a learning curve since most will be Do-It-Yourself (DIY).

You’re probably thinking free means using the same templet as someone else, which is true, but it is about what you have to say on your platform that counts.

It is your content that will score your position on search engines and drive traffic to your platform if you are willing to put in the work required to get your platform into the online world call the Internet.

Your age or when you started doesn’t make a difference, you just need to start and work at it and learn even if you can afford to pay some one to build your platform for you. You should learn bout your platform even if you aren’t the one who built it. Learn some coding and learn about the host of your platform so you you can modify it if you have to.

Not knowing what’s going on in your platform can cause you problems with search engines.

Your content and frequency of fresh content is what rates with search engines and drives traffic with relevant content to what people are searching for.

How often you update your platform with fresh content is up to you but the more often.

Some clients equate freelance writers with web designers wanting various languages such as Perl, Drupal, Joomla, building shopping carts, and more, this is programming, not freelance writing.

Other clients may request knowledge of Microsoft Word, Excel, Power Point, Adobe Pro, Quark, CRM, and CMS software, to name a few.

Newcomers to freelance writing will find it hard to acquire clients if they are not up to date on the various software programs listed above, and the software clients may be using in their business.

Freelance writers must have a working knowledge of copyright infringement, plagiarism, and the latest FTC rules if they work in the United States.

The quote below posted with permission from Tim McGuinness during a discussion about the question, “Can you reliably make a living freelance writing?”

”As a business that hires writers, you all need to understand the nature of the business models that now exist. When content became universal, it also lowered its value – not to me, but to the ultimate publishers of that content. In retail for example, the norm is to scrape content from other websites – retailers who consume vast amounts of content are not willing to pay much for it. If they can get duplicated content put up for $1 they will, until they get in trouble. What you all also need to understand it that a writer is just a part of a process – content production requires coordination, production management, quality assurance, and delivery mechanisms. These are all fixed costs, thus the writer makes less. There are still boutique projects out there, but increasingly, writing is a commodity job. You make as much as you produce. Sorry for the bad news, but this is the reality of the job now.” ~ Tim McGuinness, Ph.D.

Second, some clients specify work for writers in India, Philippines, and other non-native English countries around the world if you attempt to find jobs on the various job boards, which are content mills and can hurt reputations.

Competing against non-native English countries accepting low wages for assignments, do not quit your day job until you can continue living the lifestyle you are currently living.

It could take decades for you to become an overnight success as a newcomer to freelance writing and establishing a reputation as a quality writer.

Established writers have spent years building their reputation, many while working a day job and writing part-time until their writing could pay for their lifestyle. Established writers have credentials newcomers do not have, and must build by writing.

Building a portfolio of work takes time, hard work, education, writing, and patience.

Call me harsh, pessimistic, or overly critical, I prefer realist learning daily, while working on my PhD from the University of Hard Knocks.

Freelance writers must commit themselves to writing daily, learning new software, applying the rules of perfect grammar and punctuation in their writing to establish themselves as quality writers.

Freelance writers are entrepreneurs who must embody honesty, integrity, and quality along with transparency and authenticity in all they do.

A new form of marketing is building a business platform, networking, and building a following.

Writing is a business! One must spend the time and energy required to grow it into a successful enterprise. There are no short cuts if writers desire acceptance as serious writers of quality.